My daughter is not good for my waistline. Seems she has inherited my “I need chocolate” gene and all too regularly suggests we whip up a batch of brownies. And all too regularly a suggestion is all the encouragement I need :)
We “whipped up” these chewy brownies last night, from a recipe she spotted in my Fine Cooking magazine. I love trying new brownie recipes and love it when I find one that moves to the front of the pack in terms of taste and texture. This is one of those recipes. These brownies have a rich chocolate taste and that lovely chewy brownie texture. Perfectly satisfying and perfect with a tall glass of milk.
We iced these with a quick, chocolate buttercream icing (made with cocoa) because the daughter likes her brownies iced. I told you she was bad for my waistline!
Chewy Chocolate Brownies
Summary: These are chewy and chocolatey and the perfect treat when you just need chocolate.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (plus more for greasing pan)
- 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
- 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
- 1/4 tsp. table salt
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp. unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not dutch processed)
Instructions
- Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350° F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper. Spray or butter the parchment as well.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). *Or do this in the microwave, if you prefer.
- Let the chocolate cool slightly before stirring in the sugar, salt and vanilla.
- Add the eggs one at a time, stirring each time until blended. Add the flour and cocoa and beat until the mixture is smooth, 30-60 seconds. Batter will be thick. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake until the top is uniformly coloured, with no indentation and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out almost clean, with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, about 25-35 minutes.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack until cool enough to handle. Run a paring knife around the inside edge of the pan and then invert the pan onto a flat surface. Peel off the parchment then flip the baked brownie back onto the rack to cool completely. Ice if desired, dust with cocoa or icing sugar or just leave plain. Cut into squares.
- Optional Chocolate Frosting:
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 3 Tbsp. milk (or more, as needed)
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- In a bowl, stir butter into paste. Add icing sugar and cocoa. Add milk and stir, pressing butter and milk into icing sugar until it starts to moisten and melt. Add milk in 1 tsp. increments until the icing comes together to a nice spreadable consistency. (It happens fairly quickly so don’t get too heavy-handed with the milk). Stir in vanilla. If icing gets too runny, add a bit more icing sugar to thicken. Taste test and add a bit more cocoa if you feel it needs more chocolate flavour.
Prep time: 15 min | Cook time: 25 min | Total time: 40 min
Number of servings (yield): 12
Adapted from a Fine Cooking recipe
Sorry Anonymous. I didn’t post it because I didn’t really measure anything when I made it. That said though, I’ve included a frosting recipe above as a guideline for a quick cocoa icing that doesn’t make too much.
can you post the icing recipe too?